1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle side structure.
2. Description of Related Art
A structure in which a reinforcing member is arranged along a beltline of a vehicle side door is well-known (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-2438 (JP 8-2438 A), Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-250370 (JP 10-250370 A), Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-216831 (JP 2007-216831 A), Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-347441 (JP 2002-347441 A), and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-262868 (JP 2009-262868 A)). For example, JP 8-2438 A describes a structure in which two waist reinforcements are joined to a waist portion of a front door. In brief, the structure is such that a first waist reinforcement is joined to a surface on a vehicle width direction outside of a general portion of a door inner panel, and a second waist reinforcement is joined to a surface on a vehicle width direction inside of a general portion of a door outer panel. With this kind of structure, a load input to the front door from the vehicle front side when a frontal collision occurs is transmitted toward the rear side of the front door via the two waist reinforcements.
JP 8-2438 A describes the arrangement relationship between a center pillar and rear end portions of the first waist reinforcement and the second waist reinforcement. For example, the rear end portion of the first waist reinforcement does not overlap with a closed sectional portion of the center pillar in a vehicle side view. Therefore, when a side collision occurs, the collision load is fundamentally unable to be transmitted from the rear end portion of the first waist reinforcement to the closed sectional portion of the center pillar. Also, even though the rear end portion of the second waist reinforcement overlaps with the closed sectional portion of the center pillar in a vehicle side view, this rear end portion of the second waist reinforcement is far to the vehicle width direction outside from the closed sectional portion of the center pillar. Therefore, if the second waist reinforcement bends toward the vehicle width direction inside when a side collision occurs, such that the rear end portion of the second waist reinforcement is displaced farther toward the vehicle front side than the center pillar in a vehicle side view, the collision load is unable to be transmitted from the rear end portion of the second waist reinforcement to the closed sectional portion of the center pillar.
Therefore, with the structure described in the related art above, there is room for improvement in terms of inhibiting deformation of a beltline portion (a door panel upper end portion that includes the beltline) of a side door when a side collision occurs.